PhilG on future-proof windows apps
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/2004/01/05#a3383
Phil Greenspun is researching an approach to cataloguing photos using the Windows XP file system. He wants to come up with a tutorial for folks looking to maintain their photo information (title,description,etc) using just properties of the operating system, so that they won't be forced to migrate their data out of an obsolete application or data store, for at least 30 years. My first reaction was, 'This is a bad idea' but I couldn't immediately figure out why. It later occured to me that I don't think it's a bad goal, it's just that thinking future-proofing that far out in Windows (even more than a version or two) is antithetical to the platform. This slashdot post articules why pretty well (although it's talking about desktop environments)
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=93676&cid=8041938
What the post doesn't say is that it's not necessarily a bad thing that in each new version of Windows (or one of their developer technologies like ASP, ASP.NET etc.) people find enough value to go ditching their old investments and porting to the new thing. Phil has a pretty good track record in terms projects with longevity (acs/photo.net). But I think the fact that this project seems to ignore the MS-Windows 'churn' dynamic means it's half-life will probably coincide with WinFS's ship date.
10:52:08 AM 
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